Advice from the Guardian’s Voluntary Sector Network:
Get your website right first. People like sharing on social media, but if your content isn’t worth sharing, your website won’t get the visits from the large networks. Content is king – it’s a cliche because it’s true. Focus on what you can do for your supporters and service users, not what they can do for you. One of the functions of social media (as well as building and engaging with a community) is to drive traffic to your website, where your brand and message can be better controlled and paced, and where you can continue a deeper relationship with your supporters. Without a well-designed and well-structured website with plenty of interesting, relevant content, there’s nothing to share on social media. Supporters can often become closed communities. Closed communities are fine until the social networks decide to make a significant change (such as closing groups in favour of pages) and you lose a large chunk of that community. It’s always better to retain some control over that community while making the best use of any social network for the time people use it.
Know where your audience is. If you’re looking to grow an audience, they will already be spending time somewhere else. Go to where the people are and build relationships out on the internet, not just on your website. Realise that your users may cover a wide demographic and they may primarily use different websites or communication methods. What works for one audience won’t work for another. Spend time on the relevant forums, identify how people are using them, the general tone and which users are participating the most. These are potential influencers for your charity and could be an asset to your forum if they can be convinced to communicate there, too. It’s important to contribute to these existing groups and forums, but don’t be spammy – be genuinely helpful and respectful. Look for the influencers on other social networks too. Finally, build relationships with key bloggers – encourage them to contribute to your own blog or website and, if you trust them and they have the experience, consider making them moderators of certain parts of your forum. You can find relevant bloggers using Google blog search and use tools such as Twellow, WeFollow and Twitter’s own search to find tweeters around particular topics.
Don’t try everything at once: you’ll only set yourself up for failure. Set some clear goals before dabbling in a new social network or a digital communications channel. Measure your performance against those initial goals and, if something isn’t working, try a different technique or network. Evaluation is crucial – funders may demand it and a sceptical board or senior management may require evidence of the efficiency and effectiveness of technology before they make further investment.
Be careful about data security policies. One tip for helping to ensure data protection compliance is to check how your third-party providers deal with the issue of information security. Charities are increasingly using cloud-based services to manage their users’ personal data, including mailing-list management tools, such as Mailchimp. Mailchimp’s servers are based in America, which means that they’re technically beyond the reach of the Data Protection Act, but they do comply with internationally agreed standards for the protection of personalised data. In short, you can use cloud-based services to store and retrieve sensitive data securely. Just make sure you check their security policies before you start uploading personal data. There’s also no substitute for solid human procedures. Remember, it doesn’t matter how impenetrable your password if it’s written on a note attached to your screen.
Ian Goodman, information systems team leader, Lasa
Make sure you commit time to getting it right. Building an online community can be an immensely time-consuming activity and is certainly not a “build it and they will come” scenario. Our experience is that, as well as marketing and promoting forums, it is useful to do a number of things: online events, for example, those where you have someone able to answers questions for a set period of time; seed discussions, perhaps using service users where you already enjoy good relationships; sharing interesting discussions through social media. Finally, don’t underestimate how much effort it will take to keep the community going.
Find a platform that works for you. Social media are taking organisations more and more to real time, but there is still need for good information about what organisations do, how they work and their goals. It is about using the best form of online communication to get your message across and to engage your audience. Think about what channels to use. There are so many social media tools and mechanisms out there, it is important to get the basics right and choose methods that are most appropriate for your organisation and the audience you are trying to reach.
Alison McCormack, digital strategist, We Are MC2
Delivering advice and information to vulnerable people. I’m working on a project that is about enabling vulnerable people to receive advice online. There are models out there for doing it really well (for example, at Beatbullying or the Alzheimer’s Society) and I’m looking at their best practice to develop an appropriate model. By reviewing best practice, you can then apply it to your project.
Making managers understand. Successes talk to those at senior levels in organisations. Showing the impact that other organisations are making (commercial as well as not-for-profit) and showing the successes you are having with your own work is one of the best ways for making the case to get their buy-in. I’ve also run strategy days where leading experts come in and work with senior management teams to embed understanding at senior level. This kind of work helped Age UK to embed digital thinking in the organisation.
Emma Fitzpatrick, marketing co-ordinator, The Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust
QR codes. This is an interesting medium for charities to consider, especially with mobile giving. Some charities are considering making business cards with a QR code on the back that can be handed out at events: people can scan them then make a donation at a time that suits them.
Social media isn’t there to compromise what you’re already doing, it’s there to complement it. You can’t beat face-to-face interactions, but online networking is also useful. We’ve found that if you keep discussions interesting and frequent on LinkedIn groups, you get a better response. People don’t like to be talked at, so it’s important to engage your audience and have a conversation. It helps to have different people posting, rather than the same individuals. Direct people to relevant links on YouTube for example – people like to see images or videos rather than just words. Google Analytics is a free tool that lets you see where the traffic comes from. Find out what people like and give them more of it. But always remember to tailor your topic and your tone of voice for your audience.
Dan Sutch, head of development research, Nominet Trust
Ask why would people join your community. If you build your community around answering that question, then your offering will encourage users to stay and talk. Can you offer incentives? Can you offer questions to encourage people to give answers? Can you give expert answers that will encourage people to come and ask? Essentially, talk with your community and find out what support they need and what will encourage them to access it online. The other issue to be aware of when trying to develop an active online community is what’s often called the 1% rule. That is, for every 100 people on your forum, one person will write an article, 10 will interact with it (comment on it) and 89 will just read it. It means you’ll need to be mindful of who your contributors are and also be aware of the challenges of getting lots of people chatting to one another.
How to get management buy-in. One way of approaching this question is to look at the starting points for the adoption of digital technology by people (and organisations). It often starts with understanding the motivation for this use, whether it be about efficiency in practice, saving money, reaching more people or simply being the first in a community. These issues can be personal, but can also link to the role different people play in an organisation. For example, showing how Twitter can be used to spread messages to the head of communications and showing examples of how open data can save money to the chief executive might be useful ways of targeting advocacy. Essentially: start with the benefit in relation to that person’s roles/responsibilities and explain the technology, rather than the other way around.
Lucy Abell, head of communications, Gingerbread
Make the most of free tools. Google adwords is useful for finding new people who would find your forum useful. Use analytics to see what terms people who have visited your website used to search. You can then start building up keywords. Google runs a grants programme that charities can apply for to get a certain amount free. Making sure you have strong website page titles and your URLs are made of words and not random symbols will all boost your SEO. You should also find blogs and other websites and offer them free content, in a style and tone they’d like – it’s instant exposure to new people and it sounds like you’re doing them a favour. If you have any online resources such as factsheets on different topics, you can regularly go through posts and add in links where they’re appropriate because this will encourage people to explore your site.
Paul Ticher, founder, Paul Ticher
Get your data protection right. It’s often difficult to disentangle who is responsible for what with social media. Data protection law doesn’t apply to domestic purposes so, if you post as a private individual, you aren’t subject to the law in the same way as if you post as a representative of an organisation. What you post about yourself is your own business. The real difficulty comes when people post information about other people: you can do a lot of damage to someone else, without necessarily falling foul of any enforceable laws. The organisation hosting the site where this might happen has to think carefully about how it manages that risk.
Take online security seriously. You can outsource the operation of security to your website, but you can’t outsource the responsibility. If your website collects information about people, you are responsible for any security breaches. The penalties for getting it wrong can be significant. You have to check the terms and conditions or contract of your website host to make sure that they give you the necessary guarantees.
The new cookie law. Basically, you can’t use cookies without the permission of the people who visit your website. In practice, it will probably turn out that you don’t have to ask everyone for permission every time, but in some cases you will. It’s also important to think about the information you give people on your use of cookies and how you give it – you can find more information on this here.
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Mike Bradley, Senior Lecturer at Middlesex University has led research looking at some of the issues facing older people trying to use digital technologies and believes that the design of technology can be made much easier to learn and use for older people.
